“Faster, harder, damn it,” he whispered.
Nodding, I went faster but didn’t punch my hips against his. He nearly screamed and shoved back against me. From one heartbeat to the next my balls snugged closer to my body, and spasms in my groin stunned me stupid. The rush of coming was so good that I held on to Peter and couldn’t think of anything else except how fucking fantastic he looked in my bed. The pleasure throbbed on my cockhead and spread out through my body. I groaned and thrust a few more times.
“Sorry. Goddamn, sorry. Roll over.”
Peter flinched as I pulled out and he went to his back. I hoped he was okay, but I wasted no time, only crawled down the bed and sucked the length of his hard, needy cock until he bumped the back of my throat. Then I forced myself to relax and kept going till I had my nose buried in his pubes.
“Fucking hell!” he shouted, and my pride swelled along with his cock. It only took me bobbing up and down his shaft three times and he shot a thick, creamy load down my throat. I had to swallow a lot and mistimed trying to catch the last burst from his cock, got blasted at a bad angle, and coughed on it. I got the taste I wanted, along with some pain I didn’t, as the back of my nose burned. When I sat up and wiped at the corner of my mouth, the way he stared rocked me. Something glowed in his eyes, and maybe it was love; I could tell he thought I was special. The bed squeaked when I dropped to his side and pulled him into a kiss.
It made me feel like I was Superman when he tucked his head under my chin and pressed his soft lips to my chest. The way he stroked my arms and caressed my pecs made me want to work out every day of my life. I’d noticed how he liked my muscles, and while he wasn’t the first person, I’d never been so taken with the idea of keeping myself just right for someone.
“I’m worried. What if they haul you away because of this mess? Or cuff me?” His voice was clogged with emotion, and I sighed, holding him closer.
“Let’s focus on us, and when we’re out there today, we’ll do what they ask.” I tipped his chin up and brushed my lips over his mouth. “Hanlon said he was picking us up around ten, so let’s get up and get ready.”
The morning with Peter happened on a knife edge. Every smile Peter gave me over his coffee cup on the deck felt like the last I’d ever get. Every touch of his hand as he passed me, moving around the bathroom after the shower we shared, made me want to toss him on the bed and fuck him again—just in case I couldn’t later. Hewasright, after all. What if one of us wasn’t allowed to come home?
Hanlon showed up right on time, tall and impeccable in a tan suit. It seemed silly that he’d wear the suit out into the woods, but who was I to tell him how to dress? It was still chilly, but Peter and I were both in T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers—a matched set. I helped him get into the back of Hanlon’s car, glad it was more a kindness than necessity. He was able to settle fairly easily into the seat and smiled when I let go of his hand. I sat in back, too, and Hanlon didn’t say much of anything as he pulled out of my rutted driveway. He seemed nearly as nervous as we were.
We drove for a long time, and as the miles passed, Peter’s mouth twisted down into that surly line I’d been gifted with during his first few weeks at TFC. When we got to the crossroads, it was a circus. Cars and police cruisers were lined up every which way. The stomped-down clover in the fields we drove onto, surrounding the roads, made it even clearer how many people had passed through recently. In the far distance, a red barn peeked over a hill at us, and I had to wonder what the farmer who owned this land was thinking, or if they’d been a friend of Tatum Black. I shivered and was surprised when Peter slipped his hand into mine. I gripped his fingers and sent him a grin, but his handsome face was set in stone. The sunlight glittered in his dark blond hair, and instead of holding back, I brushed my fingers through the soft strands. He gave me a small curl of his lips that wasn’t quite a smile.
“It’s a short walk back there,” Peter said, nodding toward a stand of quaking aspens that soared toward the sky. Their new, not quite full-grown gold-green leaves were mostly toward the tippy top, and the white-bark trunks stuck out of the ground like straight, bony spines.
Hanlon seemed relieved Peter knew the direction where the gory mess could be found, although at this point, it was probably not much of anything, only dust and bones. “We have a cart here so you can ride to the site. The tech boys have been using it to haul equipment back and forth. Let’s go.”
The “cart” turned out to be a wagon hooked to the back of a yellow ATV that looked like it belonged on a construction site. Peter squeezed my hand until the circulation became questionable as Hanlon lowered the gate.
“I’m here,” I whispered to him.
“Know it.” Peter glared around at everyone as he sat down on the edge of the wagon bed, and one of the cops nearby didn’t seem to be too happy to have him here. His hand went to his gun, and he gave Peter a thousand-yard stare that raised sick goose bumps on my arms. Did he know Peter?
“That’s not going to work,” I said, ignoring everything else and focusing on what was important. I climbed in behind Peter and snagged my arms around his waist, but before I could pull, he shook his head. I let him move himself along and spread my legs so he could sit with his back against my chest, and then I crossed my legs under his so his knees were forced in the air in what I hoped was a comfortable angle.
“What are you doing?” he asked and tilted his head back against my shoulder.
“Looks weird, but this should keep you from bouncing around as much.” I shrugged and dragged his cane back beside me so it couldn’t get lost.
Hanlon plopped his butt down where Peter had been and patted the side of the wagon. A uniformed cop with a helmet on sat in the driver’s seat of the ATV, and he started us off at a slow pace toward the tree line and those skeletal tree trunks. Peter closed his eyes and squirmed until he had his cheek pressed against my chest.
“What are you doing?” I brushed my fingers down his cheek. “Do you want to back out? No one would blame you. You can tell them things somewhere else.”
Hanlon cleared his throat and I thought about kicking him off the wagon. We hit a nasty bump, but Peter didn’t open his eyes.
“Thinking,” he murmured.
Golden sunshine streamed through the fresh early spring canopy and set the leaves ablaze. Birds sang. Nearby a rabbit scampered away from the noisy motor of the ATV and zigzagged out into the field. When we broke through the trees and were under the dampening effect of the branches and leaves, there wasn’t much underbrush, and it was easy to spot at least ten guys in the woods working away. As far as I could see there were stakes spaced out with numbers sticking up from them, stretching off into the distance. Quickly it became clear there was some sort of grid system in place. There were people on their knees in different sections, digging like they were excavating dinosaur bones.
Peter trembled in my arms, and at first I thought he had a chill, but he didn’t stop. “I’m sorry you had to come here and be afraid all over again,” I whispered in his ear.
“You too.”
“No, I was never here.”
It made me feel good when Peter dragged one of my arms more securely around his middle—or at least it made me feel useful—and I wrapped him up close. As the ATV came to a halt, Hanlon turned to stare at us.
“Peter? You ready? It’s going to be a long day. I’ve got a camp chair in case you get tired of standing around, but I want you to look at each—”
“Hole in the dirt?” he said, and sat up to stare away from us, surveying the burial ground. It didn’t look special, the way I thought the place where bones rested should. It was just a stretch of peaceful woods. Maybe this hadn’t been that bad of a spot for a final rest after all. Tears caught me by surprise and I cleared my throat. When I glanced in the direction Peter’s attention was focused, my gut dropped. He pointed at a hole nearby—wide, square, and deep.
